It’s a day to Celebrate

Posted on August 9, 2019 by joannesclimb

The annual state flag flypast

It’s Singapore’s national day, and we are celebrating it big time again. Yes, again, because I have come to realise that having the capacity to celebrate is not a given. We are so fortunate that this little red dot is free from many natural disasters. We may not be the best of the best, but we are certainly one of the better managed countries. The country’s stability in our daily lives allow many of us to dream big, to live our dreams or just to live life as it is.

Last week, I joined some friends at the Marina Bay Sands area to watch fireworks. Looking around MBS and the eventual lighting display, I am impressed. I am impressed by not just the display, more so that the entire Sands’ area was built to cater to such mega events. I recalled reading some news somewhere stating that the Gardens by the Bay was one of Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s vision, a vision to make Singapore a garden city. How different would Singapore be if our leaders had short range vision? How far ahead can we imagine? I am grateful for all that we have today, as a nation, we did well. As a citizen, we each have our own battle to fight, our own aspiration to fulfill. When our country gives us a peace of mind to live in, we know we have the space to think big, to imagine the unimaginable, to dream the wildest dream. Let’s celebrate our little success today and also to think about tomorrow, for tomorrow’s dream is built from today.

National flag display at Marina Bay Sands

Sleepless Ultra

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Last October, I accompanied a good friend, Ivy, to run a short segment of the Monster Ultra 200. As the event title suggest, participants will run an ultra distance of 200km within 48hrs – with little or no sleep. While waiting for Ivy at Kranji MRT station, I saw a few “Monsters” ran passed me. It was not difficult to differentiate these “Monsters” from other casual runners because you can hardly see people running at 1am carrying a hydration bladder looking very determined. As I looked on, I sank into a state of reminiscing the days preparing for Everest climb. Back then, very often I went on long hours of run-jog-walk to build my endurance fitness. I know I can manage well with long hours of climb, trek or jog without much sleep, and that is the exact reason why Ivy got me to do this with her. I was to be her motivator to help her stay awake during the ungodly hours.

With Ivy on her "Monster Ultra 200". She was on her 50+km, I accompanied her for 30km. (Photo credit: William Muk)

With Ivy on her “Monster Ultra 200 2014”. She was on her 50+km, I accompanied her for 30km. (Photo credit: William Muk)

William, a stranger then, run along with us to support Ivy's quest.

William Muk, a stranger then, ran along with us to support Ivy’s quest. (Photo credit: William Muk)

Throughout the run with Ivy, the supporting officials were very kind and helpful, despite me not being one of the “Monsters”, they offered me food and drinks. Along the way, we also met a runner who came specially to catch up with the “Monsters” running pass near his home; he “caught” Ivy the “Monster”. He had also paced Ivy for a distance after I left her. And today, we became friends.

I was basked into a very familiar atmosphere – a community that support and encourage one to push boundaries, to test personal limits, to persevere, to outdo oneself. I told myself, I want, and I must do this again. Then, I found out about Twilight Ultra Challenge (TUC) 2015. I had previously known about this event (held for the past 4 years by the same organiser), I was just too busy climbing mountains that I had not a chance to think about participating. On the other end, I have a group of secondary school friends starting to pick up running to keep fit. I thought it would be a good opportunity for my secondary school friends to take part in a local event that is no frills, and a chance to try out longer distances . Shared my idea with them, and yippee, we have a goal! We had about 4 months to prepare.

We organised running session together, and increase our running distance progressively. But we didn’t manage to clock enough mileage before the event, as a group, we ran up to 14km – nothing close to ultra, not even a marathon distance. I was worried. The only consolation I have is that TUC allows you to run as long or as short a distance as you can manage (or as you wished) in 16 hours. This is also probably the reason why school mates are willing to try knowing that they have little experience with ultra distance running. We signed up as a team, not a solo runner, this gave them lesser stress.

The day came, and I set a target for myself – 45km. Since TUC is an ultra event, I see it as necessary to clock at least a marathon distance, and 45km is a decent ultra distance. *Grin* (Ultra distance is running and walking longer than the traditional marathon length of 42.195 km).

My secondary school mates, junior, seniors, all ready at TUC2015. (Photo credit: Michael Chia)

Before the flag-off at 7pm, we observed a 91 seconds silence for Mr Lee Kuan Yew. Among the runners, some have pledged to run 91km (the late Mr Lee’s age), some to run 50km for SG50. I stick to my 45km target, focus on it, and would review depending on my condition.

I was doing well for the first 15km (3 loops of 5km); when I was on my 4th loop, my legs started to feel jelly, an early sign of muscular fatigue, and pain also set in – my ITB was acting up causing pain in my right knee and my right groin. I started to limp, and I had difficulty bending my right knee and to raise it up to 90 degree. It was obvious to me that this was caused by a lack of running mileage + a long-standing ITB issue. I started to doubt if I could complete at least 45km distance. While I had doubts, I also started to find ways to alleviate the pain, and of course to fight off that jelly legs.

Elevating my legs 10-15mins for every 5km I ran (Photo credit: Jacqueline Oon)

I have good mountain fitness, but extremely lacking in running mileage. It was literally a game of mind over body – mind over dead legs! I stopped at every 5km to do stretches and spent 10-15mins elevating my legs. It proved to be helpful, and it worked! It worked for the next 15km, at least. It also helped when a couple friend came to pace me for 2 loops of 5km. I managed to struggle a walk-a-jog and had completed 35km at 2:30am. I took 7.5 hrs just to complete 35km. I felt so inadequate because I used to be able complete a marathon in 6 hours. To keep my legs going, and to stay away from remembering the pain, I kept repeating a quote I chanced upon in the internet: Pain is weakness leaving the body. As I repeat my mumbling, it went:

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Diligently taking in high energy supplementary meals like Weider Royal Jelly. My fav! (Photo credit: Adeline Kea)

Pain is weakness leaving the body

Pain is weakness leaving my body

Pain is weakness leaving their body

Pain is weakness … “mind went blank” … argh

Pain is weakness leaving my body

Pain is weakness leaving the body

Pain is my body ……… pain is hell!

Pain is a sensation can be ignored!

Pain is a sensation can be ignored!

Pain is a sensation just ignore!

Pain just ignore …omg

Pain is idiot…….pain is …..

Mak and Beeli (middle) paced me for 10km, helped me to complete 35km distance at about 2:30am. (Photo credit: Jacqueline Oon)

After completing 35km, my legs were totally spent. I took a 30 mins break and continue to elevate my legs. By now, half of my team had gone home after completed 30km. I walked the next 5km with Daniel Pong and Jacqueline Oon (who came to give us support), and that 5km walked has helped to release the fatigue in my legs; that left me with another 5km to reach my target distance. Yippee!

Daniel and I walked for 5km, it helped to release the fatigue in my legs. 40km for me, and 30km for Daniel – a first for Daniel, his longest recorded distance was our 14km training run. (Photo taken at our first 10km, credit: Adeline Kea)

By the time when I completed 45km distance, all my team mates had gone home. I was then left alone with the rest of the runners who were still accumulating distances. I have decided to jog another 5km to make it to 50km for SG50. It was an easy decision then, because the fatigue had gone (the soreness came back at the next 10km). At pre-dawn hours, runners who were still on the course were battling their own challenges, some were running strong (yes, run!), some were walking like a zombie. It was very encouraging and comforting to hear call-outs from other runners, some gave a wave, a nod or a thumbs-up which was equally motivating.

While on my way to complete my 50km, I met Rima, popularly known as the Tyre-Lady Ice among our local running community. Rima is a long time friend, we have done crazy stuff together, including partnering her to run her first marathon with a tyre here in Singapore! I asked her what distance she planned to complete, as I knew that she must be already going for her 55th kilometers. She said, “65km, the year Singapore became independent!” I paused for a second before saying: ” I will probably stop at 50km”, and she continued, “Hey, how about you aiming at 65km too?” I rolled my eye ball for 360 degree, took a deep breath, gave a smirk and said: “OK, I will try!”. We went on our way. Self-talk moments emerged again: “Do I want a new target!?”, “Can I do it?”, “How’s my legs now?”. I coaxed myself: “It’s only another 15km”, “3 x 5km”, “I am coming this way one more time, just one more time!”. With my pace, I knew I would need another 3hrs to complete the next 15km. As I plod along the very familiar East Coast Park, deep in my heart, I knew I had already bought the idea sold by Rima; the self coaxing was unnecessary.

The next 10km was a cocktail of emotions – felt crazy, at times a little satisfied, then had regrets when in pain, sometime happy sometime silly – the only time that broke the momentum of those emotions was when fellow runners called out with words of encouragement – “Keep going”, “Stay strong”, Keep it up”. Oh my, I was so looking forward to all these voices and words. Never undermine simple words of encouragement; for me, it was rejuvenating, and faith restored! When I crossed path with Rima again, she offered to wait for me to complete the last 5km together. It was really very generous of her to do that. And so, a little bit of eagerness to want to quickly catch up with Rima.

Finally I met up with Rima, and we started to walk and chat. She is really a honey! Almost all runners who passed her would waved or Hi-five to her. She is everyone’s friend. That’s Rima, and that’s what makes her attractive. We completed our last 5km walk-a-jog together under the morning sun with all the “Hellos” and “Hi-5s”; and of course, Rima’s “ka-chang” that reflects her efforts to reduce trash. (“Ka-chang” – cantonese word for personal belongings or tools)

(Photo credit: Mr Ben Swee / TUC2015 Organiser)

At the event site, spotted Ivy arriving to help out at the event. And this is also the first time that we turned our roles around – I am a participant, while she is a volunteer.

With Rima (middle) and Ivy at the TUC event tent.

My Appreciation

Thanks to my fellow school mates who joined me for this event. Ben, Daniel, Michael , Andrew, Robin, Chang Pin, Guann Hwa 学长. Also my appreciation to fellow Alumni who came to support us with drinks and food – Adeline Kea, Jacqueline Oon, Anston Tan & wife, Nancy Goh, Shirleen Phua.

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Hua Yi Alumni (Photo credit: Adeline Kea)

Thank you to the organisers and their volunteers, they were awesome. The team at the check-station were forever so alive. Some of the kids even brought their books to study. I love the splashing of ice cold water. I like the idea of BYOB – Bring your own bottle. Though I did not eat much of the food provided (I took 2 slices of peanut butter bread), I saw that there were good selection of food provided, including marshmallow!

There were runners who gave good morale support. In particular, tag no 203 (Ms Esther Yong) – she never failed to give a thumbs-up or some words of encouragement. Each time I passed her, I felt as if I was seeing a long time friend, and I look forward to cross path with her. That gave me some motivation to keep moving; and tag no 11 (Mr Daniel Ong), this one was a power house. His words was with zest and gusto – “Stay strong”, “Keep going” … Little things like this meant a lot. Thank you.

Mak and Beelie for so willingly to jog with me, jog at my snail pace for 10km at some ungodly hours where they could have gone home to rest. Jacqueline Oon for walking the 5km with me and Daniel.

My dear friend Rima, who encouraged me, and waited for me to complete the last 5km together. Making it less lonely and less painful.

Raudhah completed 95km.

Raudhah! Her gentle suggestion of completing a minimum ultra distance helped me set my target early. Or else, I would have chosen to “complete as far as I can go” which could be a 20km distance when my legs were complaining. It shows that having a goal is just so important; and having a friend to remind you about your goal is priceless!

My Reflection

Ultra Distance for the unprepared
Running an ultra event is no joking matters. Though I may not have sufficient running mileage for TUC2015, I had previous experience dealing with long distance running and staying up with little or no sleep. I have walked/jogged for up to 40 hours with little sleep, completed three 100km walks, ran at least five marathons. More importantly, I am currently active with my mountain climbing activities, so I have not entered the ultra event with zero fitness. I will advise against entering an ultra event without proper preparation, you either get badly injured physically, or you might just bruised your own ego – either one is bad. For those who are keen to move into doing ultra races, do your homework – read up, and enter a race where organisers provide meaningful support during the race, and offer some form of advise to how you can prepare for it.

I do not have sufficient running mileage to start with, I have to recognise it and be realistic with my target. Having attempted long distance running prior, I know that I will be able to complete 45km in 16 hours; the additional 20km is a bonus. Though the timing I took to complete 65km is nothing really impressive, I am satisfied and feel accomplished. The follow quote relates well with the ultra event:

“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

Choosing an event to participate
The Twilight Ultra Challenge is the 2nd local ultra races that I ever took part in; my first ultra race was MR25 Ultramarathon. No frills is what I like, I don’t need t-shirts, medals and all the fanciful banners/backdrop because they meant little to me. TUC allows optional purchases, which is a brilliant idea. What matters to me most is the experience and interaction that I will have with myself, and the people involved in the event. Small scale events like this allow us to make new friends. There is a quote that goes – there are no strangers here, only friends you haven’t met. That is so true!

We signed up as a team, and here is our accumulative distances:

HYAS Team 1 – 155km

Ben – 30km

Robin – 30km

Daniel – 30km

Joanne – 65km

HYAS Team 2 – 130km

Chang Pin – 40km

Andrew – 35km

Guann Hwa – 25km

Michael – 30km

Would I do it again? Yes, I will, just don’t know when.

More Than A Mountain

Posted on November 11, 2013 by joannesclimb

After returning from climbing Mt Everest in 2009, my team and I were busy catching up with our personal lives. Jane, our team leader, went on to complete the Seven Summits quest and MBA programme; Esther got married and is now a mum of a 18 months old baby girl – Grace; Lihui also got married and gotten her motorbike license, Yihui took up another challenge by walking a 1000 miles across the Gobi-Desert, scaled Denali (one of the Seven Summits), Peh Gee has been busy with her career and have settled into her new home – a landed property. As for me, I had put my career dreams on hold, and now I am happy to own a travel business, climbed Ama Dablam which I long to do so way before my Everest dream.

Perhaps our busy schedule was the main reason why our book took 4 years to realise, almost as long as the time we took to prepare to climb Mt. Everest.

Titled as “More Than A Mountain”, it captures the stories of our 5-years Everest journey. We wrote true and bold stories about what went on before and during the climb. If you would like to grab a copy of our book, you can make purchases at our team website. Books bought in the month of November will be autographed by the team. Each book is priced at S$27.

The book was officially launched on Sun, 10 November 2013 at the POD, National Library Board. Our team patron, Dr Vivian Balakrisnan, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, was the Guest of Honor.

This was taken on the eve of our book launch, the books were fresh from the “oven”. (09 Nov 2013)

We were really amazed that we could feel the book in our hands. (09 Nov 2013)

The team received Dr Vivian Balakrishnan at the POD, NLB (10 Nov 2013)

Our very charismatic patron, Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, gave a short speech to our guests. Dr Vivian has been with us since the team was formed in 2004. He was very supportive of us (I believe he still is) and gave us much encouragement when we met with sponsorship disappointment.

We really felt like we were celebrities at the book autograph session.

We really felt like we were celebrities (though we are really far from it) at the book autograph session.

Friends came forward to help us out for one more time.

Over the years, friends are the one who helped us made things happened. The book launch was the same.

My climbing mates of Ama Dablam came to support our book launch.

Hong Kong Trail Walker Team (2013) will be leaving for Hong Kong on 14 Nov. Nice to prepare ourselves for more photo taking together 😀

This photo has achieved more than 250 “Likes” on my Facebook post when I announced the launch of our book. Jaeden is definitely the real celebrity here.

The Stok Kangri team (Aug 2013) came to support our book launch too.

There were so many friends who came to support, but I just didn’t have much time to catch up or to take a photo with. Here are a few who came:

Wenn joined our SWET EBC trek and was at the base camp to support us during our climb. She also joined me for Island Peak climb in the autumn of 2011. Most hard-working supporter LOL

June has been very helpful in our planning. She got her school (Ngee Ann Poly) to agree to let us store our bulky logistic items before we sent them off to Kathmandu. She also helped us out at our Aspiring Mountaineers Programme, and part of the volunteer team to organise our send-off at the airport. As a personal friend, she made a video that comprises all the well wishes from my family and friends, it was sent to the base camp via the EBC support trekkers, it was meant for me to view it when I get bored. But it sent tears to me instead. A resourceful supporter haha 🙂

Juansa and Dean got married on the day I flew out to Kathmandu to climb (21 March 2009). I missed their wedding, and they could not see me off at the airport too. Now, they took time to attend our book launch with their children. Most enthusiastic supporters

I am really thankful to my friends who not only came to support, but also continue to volunteer their time to ensure our launch was seamless. These lovely friends are Jack Chen, Pazel Chen, Vinnie Tan, Karen Go, Joyce Low, Carmen Lee, Cherly Lim, Chin KK, Clarence Yap, and Catherine Siew.

Here is a preview page of my chapter.

Penning our thoughts was just one part of the process in getting this book out. Putting it together – 6 members’ chapters into one, getting the right illustrator to design our book, agreeing to the photo on the book cover, choosing the photos for the chapters, and many more; it felt like climbing another Everest. We are glad that we are able to share our story with more people now.

I had spent many hours writing my story, but a hard disk clashed sent all my writing to no-where-to-be-found. I had to re-write everything, but definitely not able to re-write all that I had written earlier. A friend gave me an idea to write another book to document my experiences! I could not imagine doing it without my teammates, so I shall put the idea on hold – indefinitely.

New shoes Old plans

Posted on April 24, 2013 by joannesclimb

I spent a weekend at Queensway Shopping Centre to hunt for a new pair of running shoes, and trail shoes. Queensway Shopping Centre is still one of the favorite shopping malls by many. I am impressed, many shops had new branding and offer more choices than before.

After shortlisted a few pairs of shoes, I made up my mind to stick to Asics. Asics is still my favorite brand of choice. Now, I have no reason not to run.

Love-Hate Climbing Photos

Posted on August 12, 2012 by joannesclimb

Here are some of the awesome photos of me taken by my fellow climbing mates during our recent attempt on Mt Elbrus, Russia. Frankly speaking, I love them all, but they (some) don’t always bring out the best of me. Just for a laugh, if you wish!

I love this jump shot. For the first time, I managed a kick ass pose. But I still didn’t look quite flexible. Will try harder next time! (photo courtesy of Clarence Yap) – @ the Red Square, Moscow, Russia

I saw beautiful flowers near the campsite. I plucked some off and leave them on my hair. Now, I feel guilty of it, I should have just leave them alone! (photo courtesy of Klaus Kaiser) – @ near base camp of Mt Elbrus, North Route.

Nice photo angle of me. But look at those freckles! they look like pot-holes on my face. Freak. (photo courtesy of Klaus Kaiser) – @ Base Camp, Dgily-Su area at the northern foot of Mt Elbrus

I was caught in an act. I love this comic like photo. (photo courtesy of Thiam Huat) – @Camp 1, Mt Elbrus, North Route.

I didn’t know my backpack was so HUGE! Look at Joyce, she is certainly stronger than me for she is so tiny. (photo courtesy of Clarence Yap) – @North Route, Mt Elbrus, descending to base camp.

OMG! Look at that awful chunk of beer belly. This is the MOST unflattering photo of my life. No wonder I cannot get to the summit this time! Shitty, I can’t convince anyone I climbed Everest. (photo courtesy of Joyce Low) – @North Route, Mt Elbrus, ascending to Camp 1.

This is terribly good because they say people in a team move towards the same direction. (photo courtesy of Thiam Huat) – @enroute to Mineralnye Vody, Kislovodsk.

I almost didn’t quite get this right. Thanks to the split second of pause on the camera shutter. (photo courtesy of Clarence Yap) -@ the Mushroom rock, North route, Mt Elbrus.

I climb anything – with my epic face. (photo courtesy of Clarence Yap) – @ a park in Mineralyne Vody

Girls Who Climb (Part 1)

Posted on March 29, 2012 by joannesclimb

In most articles about climbing, some would comment that climbing is a male dominated sport. I used to think the same too. However, looking at my Facebook friends’ list, majority of my female friends are climbers (I shall leave my female schoolmates aside). In one way or another, my female friends would at least be a climber once, or be involved in climbing related activities at least once if not regularly.What constitute a climber? In my own opinion, anyone who scale heights is a climber.

Once a climber, always a climber. A rock climber is a climber, a mountain climber is a climber. Hmmm, so is a trekker a climber? Only you have the answer. What do I think, then? I say, yes.

Nevertheless, my purpose of putting up this post is to introduce a few new friends whom I have the opportunity to be connected with; they are girls who climb.

My first candidate of the few is Nur Hafiizah. Her group of friends in our recent Nepal trek to Annapurna Base Camp like to call her a Ninja. My primary understanding of this nick she has is probably because she wears a headscarf all the time. As I get to know this little angel more, I tend to agree with the Ninja persona she might have, hidden in her. Let’s put aside the folktales about the Japanese Ninjas who were supposedly specialized in unorthodox warfare. I am not referring to that.

Hafiizah, the little Ninja

Ninja did not always work alone, team work exist; they are highly skillful and independent. This is exactly what I perceived Hafiizah’s Ninja personal as. Throughout our entire 14days trek, she was highly independent. She knew how to manage her personal comfort in a hostile environment; I called this skills. She is a quiet and a good-natured girl.

I can’t help but to think about a question being posted to the group during our trek, it went something like:

Q:”At the end of the trek, guess who walks the furthest?”
A: “Ninja!”

Why so? Because this little Ninja is the shortest among the group, she probably needed to walk double the steps to cover the same distance as her group members. *EVIL THOUGHTS!* She is not called Ninja for nothing!

I see the inner strength in her and that she will probably be able to climb higher, a literal mountain and in all aspect of her life. Poised, is the word for her.

Got to Smile, despite!

Posted on January 19, 2012 by joannesclimb

Walking with a pair of crutches is by no means an easy task. It gets harder each time when I rest my weight on the hand grips because my armpits are feeling sore! Perhaps the technique is not right. But hell, who wants to be good with using the crutches? not me! 😀

My two extra pair of “legs”

Got to smile! =)

Two things I probably cannot do this pre-CNY.

1. To queue for Lin Zhi Yuan bak gua! I love the queuing because it gives me a sense of purpose for the long wait. Crazy? but that was my way of staying happy for CNY!

2. To go shop for goodies for CNY. And that’s to say, I will have to miss eating those CNY goodies since I cannot shop for them. Haiz! Now I regret for not buying the goodies earlier.

Oh well, I am so looking forward to a quick recovery. What made me happy today is that I received these images from colleagues in NP. I just cannot stop laughing, if you can guess what went on this images! =)

I was obviously in pain! haha

He is Bond …

James Bond!

Walking is a challenging affair for now

Posted on January 18, 2012 by joannesclimb

As a climber/mountaineer and occasionally a runner, I have always been weary about getting injuries. I supposed minor pain here and there is inevitable, but getting it too often and too serious is scary. Recently, especially the period when I was preparing for Island Peak and Ama Dablam, I have noticed a nagging discomfort on my archilles tendon especially the heel bone area. I felt the stiffness when out of bed in the morning. Apart from this, I also noticed some pain on the groin over the years. The groin pain amplified when I was in Nepal after the AD climb.

Kumaran, a Doctor by Profession, tried to guide me with some stretching exercises to alleviate the pain

My greatest mistake was to have ignored all the minor pain all these while. Believing that if I continue to exercise, it will heal over time and that the condition will not get worsen (it will, if I had been diligent with my pre/post-workout warm up and stretches).Frankly, I have not suffered any major injuries thus I really have little experience on dealing with it especially when it happens to me. The excruciating pain on my groin that I suffered at Lukla was a big scare to me. I cried. Because the pain was sharp, I was not able to stand on my feet.

So on Tuesday (yesterday), I suffered a sharp acute pain on my heel bone (Calcanus) after a round of badminton. I believe that my warm up and stretching exercises were not effective considering that I have not been working out much after my return from Nepal. So Ouch!

Badminton kakis in action, I could only watch!

No swell, just pain!

There were no swelling and redness, but the area was painful to touch. I could still walk but with an obvious limp. I went to the nearby restroom hoping to change to my jeans but the pain was too much for me to want to do anything. I decided to go home. When I got out of the vehicle, it was already too painful to walk. I literally hopped my way home from the car park. The immediate treatment was to apply the RICE treatment. It would have been better if I had ice it earlier …

Icing my heel bone at home

It has been more than 24hrs since the pain came on. The pain hasn’t gone lesser, and I am still unable to walk with the injured leg. Last evening, a concerned friend (Joe), we share the same birthday and same chinese animal horoscope but 12 yrs a part (ok, nothing to do with anything haha), sent me a set of his used crutches. With the crutches, I can move around in my flat without having to hop and risk injuring the good leg.

I am still pretty much in my high spirit, just hope that this injury won’t last too long. My biggest challenge is not about the walk with a limp, but more so to recover fast enough so that my mum won’t suffer. She has been extremely sensitive to my needs, and knowing very well that all the little routine things I do everyday become difficult for me. Mum is mum, she is just forever so caring. I am appreciating her more.

Random Thoughts

Posted on December 3, 2011 by joannesclimb

I will never trade climbing for anything else. So please stop asking me when will I stop climbing. Instead, ask me when will be my next climb, but ask only if you are genuinely interested to know.I fully understand the risk involved, the time and money spent to climb. And yes, I know I have families and friends who are worried when I climb, but hey, even crossing a road is dangerous, and you might just get run over by a train in the MRT station. I’d rather die in the mountain (ahem, touch wood!) than to die of some deadly illness or to be in the hands of some reckless drink drivers. Period.

I have so much to catch up. I want to share with you the climbs I did like Aconcagua in Feb and my recent climbs on Island Peak and Ama Dablam. As you can see, my last entry was more than 6 months ago! Haiz. I just need to get my ass down and map out my thoughts. Not forgetting that I am also rushing out my thoughts on our Everest journey. The SWET team is really behind time with our book which we have been telling people about. We had postponed our climb, we cannot postpone the writing. Yes, we will get it out somehow.

Returning to Nepal was a nostalgic experience. Everything that I saw in Kathmandu and in the Khumbu was just so familiar. Climbing Everest with SWET seemed just a recent affair when I traveled on the trails. It was definitely a nice feeling. And guess what, the SWET team Marmot shell was so eye-catching. I had strangers telling my climbing sherpas that they recognised the shell belonging to the women’s team from Singapore. I felt like being watched! On the other hand, I feel proud to be part of the SWET.

At the summit of Island Peak with Dorje and donning that “SWET ” shell that many other climbing sherpas were familiar with.

Jumping for joy on the summit of Ama Dablam

Year 2011 is coming to an end soon. Looking back, I have had a jolly good time climbing, from Argentina to China and back to Nepal, I can’t ask for more.

Scavenging in Mendoza

Posted on March 5, 2011 by joannesclimb

The team at the start of the day one trek

Climbing and food come hand in hand. You need to eat, you need energy to stay alive, more so when in the mountain. The meaty meals before the climb was filled with excitement and in anticipation, like in heaven. After the climb, it was more like a chore than anything else. The pig-out days in Mendoza (Argentina) still lingers in my mind – the streets filled with restaurants, the wine, the sparkling drinks and the slow moving human traffic. I am still pretty overdosed with the food (sorry, the MEAT), felt like I was a huge carnivore. My stomach is still learning to digest. My stools (excuse me, please) are still in some sort of like watery state, nothing solid. I haven’t eaten dinner for the past days since I returned to this lovely sunny island I called home (my lovely home, truly). The flight delay in Auckland airport was a torture to me, I declare that I never felt so homesick ever before. Seems like the Mendoza scavenging inked on me more than the climb did. Many people told me not to miss the steaks and the winery tour in Mendoza. I went for the steak, but not the wine tour, and not to mention the wine festival that I deliberately skipped.

Yummy steak before the climb

I ordered BBQ pork after the climb (more than half was not consumed, TOO MUCH)

The ribs for Klaus (the real carnivore :))

Seafood on Caesar Salad (Carmen’s fav, the one Alan didn’t get to eat)

It was raining in Mendoza by the time we return from the climb, and the weather has changed from hot & sunny to windy & chilly. When it poured, the streets turned into a running river. Who’s complaining about the floods in Orchard Road?

Heavy downpour floods the streets of Mendoza.

What else can we do in Mendoza? I supposed that we were just not adventurous enough. In order to try to burn some calories from the eating, we went cycling! It was fun, but I kept paddling on the wrong side of the road (left hand drive) and getting head on with other road users. The road was pretty much FLAT, technically nothing too strenuous for any serious fat-burning excursion. And a late lunch added to the scale.

Cycling excursion!

Another round of eating after the cycling excursion

Ahem. We never felt hungry when in Mendoza, oh, at least not for me. Glorious food we behold, we hunt down one of the highly recommended restaurants in Mendoza by Times magazine – Siete Continentes (the restaurant name, it means 7 continents). We ordered the 7 course dinner – Siete Cocinas de Argentina. BURP!!!!! That was our last evening in Mendoza.

The journey home was tedious, as we didn’t get to fly as scheduled. So the airport became our temporary home. Obviously, FOOD became our targets. We had burgers, fire wings (aka buffalo wings) and sushi!

The two mini burgers – I only managed the fries, burgers were adopted by the rest

The sushi spread we had, we bought it with the food vouchers given to us by the airline

The food vouchers – at first was one per pax, then 2nd voucher came, then more and more vouchers. We knew, the more we get, the longer we would have to wait. Sigh.

Overdose with food! I had enough!

Climbing stories another day.

Joanne's climb

Tales of a Mountain Tortoise

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